NSF Award
2229155
This grant supports fundamental research on a radical transformation of additive manufacturing through digitally connecting machines, humans, and manufactured products. Additive manufacturing has enabled a new paradigm shift from conventional design for manufacturing approaches into manufacturing for design. A fundamental change in additive manufacturing is necessary as we enter a new era of intelligent future manufacturing beyond additive manufacturing. A promising solution is the convergence of wireless embedded sensors with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) data processes, which can transform the way people interact with manufacturing processes, factory operations, optimizing efficiency, and anomaly system detection that could provide critical information about evaluated components and systems. This project opens a new transitional door to perceptive and cognitive additive manufacturing, enabling true internet of things and digital twin, connecting devices and machines in factories with robots, computers, and humans, and every product we manufacture in factories. The grant will also support educational activities to upskill the manufacturing workforce, K-12, undergraduate and graduate students, and the public, significantly influencing diverse populations of all ages and backgrounds. <br/><br/>Transformation to cyber-physical production manufacturing demands advanced process monitoring through distributed sensing beyond the current state of digitally connected machines and robots collaborating with humans. This project seeks to enable unprecedented wireless fingerprinting and sensing of additively manufactured parts by embedding wireless sensors and performing predictive analysis and health monitoring using AI and ML techniques. This project proposes a holistic approach involving four core research tasks: 1) to study the effects of embedding sensors during additive manufacturing; 2) to design embeddable acoustic sensors and insert them during the manufacturing process to read physical parameters; 3) to prove that embedded passive sensor signals can be sensed wirelessly using millimeter-wave antennas, and 4) to quickly monitor and evaluate the state of manufactured products using ML algorithms. This project has the potential to enable next-generation cyber-physical production systems. <br/><br/>This Future Manufacturing award is supported by the Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems (ECCS) in the Directorate for Engineering (ENG) and the Division of Computer and Network Systems (CNS) of the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE).<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
